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The power of email marketing

Email is a helluva drug. That must be why I’m sitting here in a hotel room in Chicago where it’s minus something-a-lot outside and the roads are full of ice, salt and dingy snow.
It seemed like such a great idea at the time. Virgin America sent me an email advertising a 20% off sale for 20 hours. Al has been bugging us to come visit him in Chicago for months and I could get a storming deal on tickets. I poked around various websites and found a decent deal on a mini-suite at a hotel in downtown, just a block off Michigan Avenue.
It will be fun! The lights! Christmas Shopping! Maybe see some snow!
Well, we got the lights. We got to watch Christmas shoppers hurry along the avenue. We got to see the ice on the lake and throw snowballs. We even got to walk outside in a gentle snowfall on Saturday.
I realized, though, that I no longer have outerwear appropriate for midwest winters. I remember my years in Madison fondly, but I seem to have forgotten that I lived in 2 – 4 layers between September and March. I have forgotten that gloves and a scarf are not a fashion accessory, but are a necessity.
It was email marketing that reminded me of all that. And I have my fill of cold and snow and ice for a while.
Had a great time in the city, and Al was a wonderful host. But I’m ready to go back to my warm California, where as a friend of mine commented, “we keep the snow in the mountains where you can visit it.”

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Email marketing OF THE FUTURE!

ISPs are continually developing tools for their users. Some of the newer tools are automatic filters that help users organize the volumes of mail they’re getting. Gmail released Priority Inbox over a year ago. Hotmail announced new filters as part of Wave 5 back in October.
All of these announcements cause much consternation in the email marketing industry. Just today there was a long discussion on the Only Influencers list about the new Hotmail filtering. There was even some discussion about why the ISPs were doing this.
I think it’s pretty simple why they’re creating new tools: users are asking for them. The core of these new filters is ISPs reacting to consumer demand. They wouldn’t put the energy into development if their users didn’t want it. And many users do and will use priority inbox or the new Hotmail filtering.
Some people are concerned that marketing email will be less effective if mail is not in the inbox.

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And we're back

Happy New Year!
I am back and ready to talk email with folks.
December is always a busy time, both between the holidays and all associated personal stuff, but also for delivery consulting. There are senders that suddenly discover their email going to the bulk folder and needing help and assistance. But now it’s January and email marketing gets a brief break.
The beginning of the new year and the lull after the Christmas season marketing storm is a good place for folks to think about marketing and email goals for the upcoming years. Many senders get so wrapped up in the day to day details of email that they fail to think strategically about email and their business.
It works much that way for me, as well. I hate it when my clients have bad delivery and do everything I can to fix their problems. If their mail isn’t getting to the inbox, then it’s as much my problem as theirs. I’m thinking and working to get to the root of their problem and come up with solutions to get their mail sent. This sometimes means my own strategic planning gets pushed aside while I focus on client needs. January is a fun time of year for me, because it’s all a little more relaxed and I can look at the new year and how to improve services and share more of my knowledge with folks.
You’ll start to see some of those improvements in the upcoming months. I’ll also be blogging regularly. We should be getting some research and white papers out over the next few months. I’ll be catching up on the Google privacy cases and updating on some other email related lawsuits.
2014 is looking like a year of growth and excitement.

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