Face it: No one reads your company e-newsletter. The average user spends a mere 51 seconds skimming one -- and needs only 90 seconds to unsubscribe. To prevent inbox irritation, "include short stories or bits of advice that are easily digestible," recommends Chad White, research director at Responsys and a veteran of the Email Experience Council, this London conference's sponsor. Design is also crucial. Newsletters lose a fifth of subscribers to layout and usability issues. And, please, don't spam your readers. "It's not about more email," White explains. Read More »

Now that brands are becoming more aggressive users to social tools like Twitter and Facebook, there's a danger that consumers will be inundated with marketing messages and unwanted advances. The messages have become "touch points" scheduled by a system; the major brands have many ways to touch a customer--advertising, public relations, direct marketing, telemarketing, and now SCRM. With all that at their disposal, no wonder brands sometimes appear to be stalking consumers. But those are the big brands. What about the smaller ones? Read More »

In tough economic times, email marketing might seem more desirable, but marketing veteran ‘Mr. Crisis Buster’ says watch out for the pitfalls.

2008 has been a turbulent year for agency and brand marketers alike. With ad budgets pulled back but agency and brand marketing result expectations as great as ever, I've been spending a lot of my time on the road, addressing both parties at conferences like iMedia Connection's last agency summit and a host of other forums where marketers are seeking answers to the various dilemmas they face within their own domains.

Undeleted email of the day … View PDF

In a nutshell: a company called REMO asking its community very directly to help them continue to stay viable,  by buying their product.

In the fuming pile of spam I pooper scoop each morning, this got momentarily retrieved when I saw "SOS" in the subject line - why, it could be a friend in need, or my employer yanking me back to the office, and it doesn't sound like the Treasurer of a Nigerian Bank either ... 
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