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Larry Chase's Web Digest For Marketers

Email marketing has some of the best ROI in all of online marketing. To optimize your ROI, you need to stay on top of this proven marketing medium. Below are 14 reviews of the must-read blogs on email marketing.

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Attention Bloggers: You can link to the content below and know it will live permanently at http://www.wdfm.com/publish/email_marketing_blogs/index.htm

Best Email Marketing Blogs: Contributing Editor Janet Roberts has been inside email marketing for longer than most. The way she stays current on this essential channel of Internet marketing is by checking in with the must-read blogs she reviews below. Take it away, JR...

Marketing blogs are getting to be a dime a dozen these days. The best blogs dive down right into a single channel.

Blogs focusing on email marketing specialize in this channel-diving, especially those run by some ISPs and vendors. Some vendor blogs in particular are among the most informative out there, because the companies are eager to show off their industry savvy and manage to avoid excessive self-promotion.

One note about blog reading: Yes, you're busy and you don't think you have time to keep up. Here are two fast ways:

  1. Read them in a special feed reader such as NewsGator or Feedburner.
  2. Subscribe to email updates, which compile recent posts into a single email, and sometimes combine posts from several blogs into a speedy-reading format. The Feedburner service is one of the most prevalent. Blogs listed below that offer updates via Feedburner are marked "FB" at the end.

Retail Email Marketing Blogs

RetailEmail
http://retailemail.blogspot.com

If you're involved in any aspect of e-commerce with an active email channel, this blog is required reading. If it's happening in retail email, Chad White will report it here, including hits and misses in copy and promotions. Especially useful is the Subject Line Index, which you can use to see what your competition is up to and which subject lines are currently most popular. Just be sure you don't end up in Chad's Hall of Shame! FB

MineThatData
http://minethatdata.blogspot.com

Email is a key channel for e-commerce marketers, but it is only one of several in an integrated marketing program that also includes print, broadcast, direct mail, SEO and social networks. How to integrate your email campaigns and make them work with rather than independent of (or even against) your other channels is multichannel marketing guru Kevin Hillstrom's mission.

His blog outlines real-world strategies and looks at ways to sew all the channels together so they work in harmony. If you're a marketing or retail executive, you should be following what Kevin says in his meaty, data-driven posts. This veteran of retail powerhouses like Nordstrom, Lands' End and Eddie Bauer knows a thing or three about making channels work.

Email Marketing Round-Up Blogs

Inbox Insiders
http://networks.feedburner.com/Inbox-Insiders

It pays to go straight to the top. This blog aggregates posts daily from top executives at Return Path (deliverability experts), eROI (email agency), Silverpop (email service provider) and others. Look here for breaking news, especially company-sponsored surveys and technical news and precious little brand-flogging.

The bloggers featured here are experts at translating complicated technical news into language the average person can understand, and making them understand why they need to know it in the first place. FB

Email Marketing Experts
http://networks.feedburner.com/emailmarketingexperts

The name says it all: When you absolutely, positively have no time to read even the elite of the best email marketing blogs, sign up for this blog-of-blogs, which brings some of the best minds out there who are blogging on email, marketing, technology and related issues into one network under the Feedburner roof.

Here you get one collection of posts from nine top blogs, available to read at the site or through an email with that day's posts. It's as close as you'll get to a 360-degree view of the email world, with news, tips, advice and editorializing covering content, subscriber management, deliverability, ISP relations, anti-spam developments, formatting and legal issues. If you have time for only one blog, make it this one.

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Email Marketing Advice, Tips and Best Practices Blogs

Email Experience Council
http://blog.emailexperience.org

The EEC launched in 2006 as a trade group by and for people who actually do email marketing. It was so successful it got a can't-refuse offer to join the Direct Marketing Association and has since evolved into a major information source. You'll find a fair bit of fresh news here every day, plus tips, best practices and viewpoints (which are newsy rather than self-promoting).

The posting traffic is relatively low, so you can keep up easily, and you don't have to be a member to get the posts. It's also useful for connecting and networking with your fellow email marketers, since you'll see contacts here who don't post in other places. FB

The Messaging Times
http://www.messagingtimes.com/blog/

This blog (published by Infacta, an email software and service provider) is well regarded by its competitors. It looks at all aspects of email marketing, sometimes commenting on issues raised by bloggers and sometimes stirring the pot as well with its own perspectives. It deals more with tips, advice and best practices for newsletter publishers than with technically detailed discussions. So, if you need a blog that looks at the issues you as a marketer have to contend with daily, this is an excellent blog to watch.

No Man is an iland
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/

Mark's blog is an excellent combination of his own tips and advice and abstracts of worthwhile articles he picks up from other online sources. He has plenty of street cred as a best-practices email guy and he has a good eye for articles that both advance the practice for more experienced users and answer basic newbie questions. You'll find references to blogs, newsletters and forum posts that otherwise slip off the radar.

International Email Marketing Blog

BeRelevant!
http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com

Tamara Gielen is the one to consult when you want an international perspective on email marketing. (You should, because you never know which country your messages go whizzing off to every time you send.) Tamara's home in Belgium and her job - Director of Email and Digital Dialogue Strategies at OgilvyOne Worldwide – give her a bird's-eye view of trends, attitudes and news.

Hers is the blog that many other marketing bloggers read first for her original news and perspectives. She is also your eyes and ears at the world's major email conferences, because she posts her notes to the blog soon after each event.

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Email Marketing Viewpoints

Email Marketing Strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey
http://emailmarketing.silverpop.com

Ever wish you could sit in while your CEO thinks out loud about email marketing's challenges and rewards? That's what you get when you read Bill Nussey's blog posts. The Silverpop CEO reports on legal and technical issues, muses about issues of the day and shares strategic advice. Every well-written post is worth the few minutes it takes to read. Look for Bill's take on tech developments, strategy, legal issues and better use of your email software, whether you're a Silverpop client or not.
Disclosure: Silverpop is an advertiser in good standing with Web Digest For Marketers.

Adventures in Email Marketing
http://www.banane.com/workblog/

Anna Billstrom is right in there with you in the email trenches, and she writes candidly about what works, what doesn't and what should never have seen the light of day. She pulls no punches either, so if you like sharp, tight writing that doesn't read like a press release or a spec sheet, she's the blogger for you. She manages to marry the technical aspects of email to the marketing side, so that you can plan your campaigns on firmer footing. She also turns a gimlet eye on the commercial messages she receives and dissects them with detailed and intelligent analysis.

Email Marketing Technology Blogs

Campaign Monitor
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/

One of the best compliments you can give a vendor blog is another vendor admitting he reads it faithfully. That's the surreptitious honor afforded Campaign Monitor. This blog is written for users of the Campaign Monitor email software, but many issues – coding, deliverability, rendering across different email platforms, devices and readers – are universal. The company is in the forefront of the move to standardize many aspects of email design and deliverability, two topics you need to stay abreast of to improve your own performance.

John R. Levine Blog
http://weblog.johnlevine.com

John is one of those tech wizards who can take scary, complicated email issues and distill them for the non-techs in the audience. He's the one to follow for the first news about changes and developments on email delivery, unsolicited email and legal issues, among other topics. You won't get marketing insights here, but you will be able to understand and stay ahead of developments on the tech side that can help or hurt your own performance.

His perspectives and advice sometimes run counter to the herd as well, given that he's farther out there on the edge than many email experts or consultants. But, that's a good thing!

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6 New Resources Just Added to Larry Chase's Internet Marketing Resource Center

  1. 10 PPC Ad Copy Tips
  2. 12 Trends for the Next 3 Years for Internet Marketing
  3. Secrets of an Email Newsletter Publisher
  4. Social Media Marketing Tactics & Resources
  5. 9 Quick Tips to Optimize Online Sales Lead Gen
  6. Optimizing for Universal and Blended Search

Email Deliverability Blogs

AOL Postmaster Blog
http://journals.aol.com/pmtjournal/blog

If you don't have a close, personal relationship with the postmaster (the head email person) at each ISP, company blogs like this one are the next best thing. AOL's is the newest kid on the block, and it's as close to the inner workings as you'll get. Your tech people probably are watching this one closely; if they aren't, they should be, and so should you so that you know what they're talking about.

One testament to the many eyes following this blog: A post (at the time of this writing) about changes in the way AOL will handle invalid addresses set off earthquakes in the deliverability world. AOL, for all of its lost luster, is still the biggest gorilla in the zoo for consumer marketers, so this blog bears close monitoring.

Word to the Wise
http://blog.wordtothewise.com

Laura Atkins maintains a relatively low profile in the noisy world of email and marketing blogs, but she always manages to be at the front of the line with original reporting and commentary on email issues, especially for commercial senders coping with unsolicited email filters, deliverability and ISP issues. She's a consultant who works directly with large senders, so she knows what you're contending with and what you have to correct in both content and technology to send more email. She keeps a close eye on what the big ISPs are up to and often has the first word on changes or decisions that can hurt your deliverability.

Attention Bloggers: You can link to the content above and know it will live permanently at http://www.wdfm.com/publish/email_marketing_blogs/index.htm

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To cancel your subscription to Web Digest For Marketers and FYI From Web Digest For Marketers simply click on the link at the very bottom of this document.

4/28/08
IN THIS ISSUE
* Retail Email
   Marketing
* Email Marketing
   Round-Up Blogs
* Deliverability Tips
* Best Practices
* Internet Direct
   Marketing Tip
   of the Week
* And More...

Download Silverpop's "7 Secrets to Recession-Proof Marketing" today.

Internet Direct Marketing Tip of the Week

Mobile Marketing = Short Copy

Subway's successful mobile coupon campaign using text messaging must limit itself to 160 characters. It proves you can hit a home run with very little space.

As more people read more messages on their Smartphones, the marketer will have to confine his/herself to getting the message across in a fraction of characters. Current wisdom is email subject lines can be up to 35 characters or so.

Imagine how much your current subject lines will have to shrink in order to be mostly seen on a cell phone screen. Your copy will really have to be very "direct" in the truest sense of the word. LC








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