Ready to tune in to streaming video embedded into your email marketing messages? This company will help you
do just that. You can either upload your own MPEG, AVI or QuickTime video clip to them or use one
of their stock clips and create your own marketing message. They transfer your clip into a Flash
format video, give you the HTML code to place in your email message and voila! The video is hosted
on your website and interested recipients simply click on your "view our video"
call-to-action within your email to go to your site and view the video (you can also send
the email through their service if you choose to do so). A sample video message can be sent
to yourself from the site. At the time of writing, the service ran $19.95 a month and a complimentary
trial was available.
At this site you can explore the many ways in which your email marketing messages can be personalized and segmented. If you are selling products or services via your email marketing campaign, you can dynamically target each recipient's email marketing message based on his or her previous behavior. The benefit of this offering is that you can create one template for your mailing and use the system's analysis and segmentation capabilities to serve up just the right combination of products, content and special offers for each recipient. For example, customers who have abandoned their shopping carts can receive emails with special offers on exactly those items that were in the cart and almost purchased. Or you might segment and target those prospects who have expressed an interest in a particular topic, such as pets, and send them different content and product offers based upon whether they have purchased pet products from you before. More relevant messages equal better results and better ROI on your email marketing campaigns.
After registration, you will be presented with HTML code containing instructions for your subscribers on how to whitelist your publication, depending upon the filtering solution they or their ISP uses. This HTML page can be inserted into your own site with a link to "Whitelisting Instructions."
Constant Contact by Roving is a do-it-yourself email marketing service provider (and Web Digest For Marketers advertiser). But just because they offer a "DIY" approach to email marketing doesn't mean they don't offer tons of support, tips and techniques to help you make the most of your email marketing efforts. Visit the site for success stories, a white paper on getting opt-in permission from your potential subscribers and a no-cost subscription to their Email Marketing Hints & Tips newsletter, which covers best practices in email marketing from the experts.
ContentBiz is dedicated to analyzing what makes great online content tick. Once a week the publisher, Marketing Sherpa, will send out by email a weekly feature article that is usually jam-packed with a step-by-step case study on how a leading company achieved a publishing success, such as a phenomenal subscriber acquisition rate, a best-selling landing page, and the like. The content is then yours to view at no cost for the next 10 days, after which it becomes accessible only by subscription. The company also publishes excellent reports on email newsletter technology providers and the "Email Marketing Metrics Guide," which reveals industry standards for clickthrough rates, open rates and much more across a wide range of publications.
This site is operated by the Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC). The content is provided
by leaders in the email industry, many of whom are ESPC members. You will find comprehensive lists
of email service providers, accreditation and reputation service providers as well current legal
information and archives of the Deliverability.com newsletter. This newsletter provides tips from
experts on getting email delivered, most often in the form of ISP-specific information culled
into Deliverability Reports. To access most of the resources, you must become a "user" and wait
24 hours for your application to be approved. The sign up process is like applying for a CIA
position, and this editor is still not sure why gender is a required field. However, it is an
excellent resource on the topic of deliverability.
This site helps you stay on top of email delivery rates by making it easy to see whether the IP addresses you use to send your emails are blacklisted by any of the major ISPs or spam reporting services. Almost every IP address (whether yours or that of your email broadcast vendor's) usually shows up on some blacklist somewhere, but you definitely need to make sure you're in the clear with the big ones such as SpamCop and Spamhaus.
Doppler is not one the behemoth email service providers, but they are one of the first that we have seen to offer the ability to customize bilingual marketing messages. This service was created to meet Internet marketers' needs to reach the Spanish language consumer base in the US. It has since expanded to include many other languages in addition to Spanish. Your recipients receive messages in both English and the additional language and can choose whichever language they prefer to read your message in. The results of your campaigns are tracked for both language deliveries, which gives marketers a multilingual email marketing delivery and analysis tool.
You'll find all kinds of good research and trend reports here. The data is primarily drawn from DoubleClick's client base, but the client list is broad enough to constitute a good cross-section of the email marketing industry. Findings include quarterly reports on email trends (a handy benchmark study of delivery, click and open rates across different categories) and quarterly policy/ISP updates along with other Web- and email-based research. "Knowledge Central" is also where you will find the archives of DoubleClick's monthly Smart Marketing Report, which in this editor's opinion is probably the best house newsletter in this industry niche.
A newsletter publisher is in the business of content, and there's no better place to keep up with digital content news, trends and strategies than this website. You'll find sections devoted to almost every topic under the rainbow, from content management and delivery to online community, pricing and syndication. The eContent 100 highlights 100 best-of-breed publishers with successful content models. To keep up with the site's prolific content, subscribe to the no-cost EContent Xtra email newsletter. Tip: Do look for penetrating articles written by Steve Smith, whom this publisher considers a must-read.