If you knew in 2020 that COVID was coming, what would you have done differently with your marketing? That's where we are today with tariffs and looming trade wars. Once again, we marketers are figuring out how to continue marketing amid turmoil and uncertainty. We need to connect with and reassure...

Well, folks, we made it to a new year again. I wasn't sure that we would. Not that we would face another earth-shattering kaboom or see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding over the hills. But it seems as if we've been in survival mode for so long I wouldn't...

As Q4 and the holiday madness swings into high gear, I want to look back at everything I've learned in the last 12 months, at how that shaped our business and my conversations with marketers and executives, and how it will affect our communal outlook and planning for 2025 and beyond....

Almost everybody in the email world has gone through a technology platform migration. But few share my perspective as a tech user, platform vendor, and now head of an agency that shepherds enterprise-level companies through the migration maze. Today's technology can do things I couldn't even dream of when I started...

One theme I've developed after 25 years in email is that it's important to give back to the industry, to contribute to our overall success by helping other people. Like you, I find myself talking with and advising marketers at conferences and on webinars, and when writing articles like these, working...

I made a big mistake at the start of the year. I began planning for my company’s year by asking myself, "What do I need to do this year?" You might think that's a normal question, but it’s really a muscle memory from the crazy days of 2020, early in the...

The email community is just now learning of the passing of Jen Videtta and for many of us, our heart shatters over this loss. Jen was a mentee of mine and a very dear friend. We talked often about email, her family, career, marriage and her son Henry. My last conversation...

How does anybody have time to read this article right now? We are in the throes of Q4, the busiest time of the year! But if you’re thinking, “Eh – I have a little time right now,” I’ll do my best to make this worthwhile. My last OI column of the...

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been a regular feature here on Only Influencers, from conversations on the email lists and in our regular Thursday members-only calls to blog posts like this one. People like Chad S. White of Oracle Marketing Consulting, Dr. Matthew Dunn of Campaign Genius, and countless others have...

AI and its associated technologies like ChatGPT have been major discussion topics at the martech conferences I've been to this year, not just on the stages but in conversations after sessions and during all the networking sessions. We're not just talking about what these models are, but how marketers are using...

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...

Hello, friends! It's November, and I am ready to dive into 2023. I want to get through these next six weeks and to be done with 2022. This is the time of year when people start predicting what to expect for the coming year, but I think it's equally important to...

I don't know about you, but I am crazy-busy these days. Not to brag about my agency, but I think it reflects the general increase in email marketing and all the attention we and other marketers and agencies are getting lately. And while I love hearing the phone ring and seeing...

I'm not big on making predictions for year-end or new-year stories. The email industry can be unpredictable, as we saw in 2020 when COVID-19 brought email back to well-deserved glory. But I do like the approach Chris Brogan takes every January. He sums up his intentions for the new year with...

What are your 3 words for 2022? Welcome to 2022! I hope this is the year we crawl out of our collective hole, but I usually feel like I’m still the kid in the back seat asking my parents, “Are we there yet?” I'm excited to produce one of the first...

Here we are in the middle of October. It's hard to believe how fast this year has gone. It seemed as if 2020 was like riding the slow boat to China, and now we're in the thick of holiday email planning again. I dug out an Only Influencers post I wrote...

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you'll know that I moved into a new house recently. Thanks to the hot housing market, moving is a life event that many of you likely are sharing with me this year. If you, too, relocated recently, you don't need me to expound...

Twitter is a funny place. I was cruising around it about a month ago when I came across a series of tweets by someone in our industry whom I'm declining to name. The tweeter was one of several responding to another tweet about why he limits responses to "Can I pick...

Having recently re-entered the job market (and thanks to Bill for the complimentary announcement here), I found myself looking back on the most recent phase of my career and realizing how much it has broadened my perspective on what mar-tech and ad-tech mean. You might know me as the pretty face...

<Pick up microphone>

In my February blog post for Only Influencers, I asked you, "How strong is the state of our union?" My own answer was ambivalent.