You know the saying one bad apple spoils the bunch? It’s true for apples. And it’s true for email marketing too. Anything that makes consumers suspicious of email is bad for all of us, no matter how rigidly we adhere to email marketing best practices or how squeaky clean our sending reputation. Phishing is one of those bad apples. When the bad guys are phishing, they are trying to get user names, passwords, account numbers and […]

Direct marketing, inbound marketing, permission marketing, content marketing and, of course, email marketing. You’re familiar with all of those. But as marketing continues to evolve, so too does the way we refer to—and think about—it and email marketing best practices. Introducing “servant” marketing, the trend featured in the just-released excerpt from the Email Marketing Handbook: Second Edition. Dubbing it “servant” marketing turns marketing itself on its head, fully and finally, perhaps, shifting the focus to a […]

We see it as an email marketing agency just about every day: A marketing team tries to choose a new email service provider (ESP), yet is frustrated by the apples to oranges comparisons one must make in an industry that lacks standardized metrics. That’s why we publish and keep up-to-date our Digital Marketing Solutions guide. And it’s the motivation behind our creation of the ESPinator online ESP selection tool. Providing you with these tools ensures your […]

Loren McDonald of Silverpop is right on target with his article about subject line testing (Subject Line Testing: Tips for Getting It Right). A couple of his tips really jumped out at us, however, as worthy of emphasizing. As an email marketing agency, we are adamant about encouraging our email marketing clients to test, test and test again. From the subject line to the call to action to the email design to every other variable, we […]

Are you headed to Vegas this week for MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit 2012? If so, you’ll be in good company…very good company. Very good and very big company: Last year, 826 email marketers attended the event! And this year, the organizers expect an even bigger turnout. Can you imagine? Almost 1,000 of your email marketing peers, all learning together, networking, sharing stories and making great connections that will last months and even years after the conference ends. […]

You know the saying about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes? It’s meant to help you develop empathy for another person. You will understand where they are coming from if you walk a mile in their shoes, or “climb into his skin and walk around in it” to quote To Kill a Mockingbird. Developing empathy for your subscribers might go much farther than a mile. As I write this, I have just had a visit […]

Driving through town the other day, I saw the following on the sign outside a church: “If you have to have the last word, make it ‘sorry’.” That simple word little five-letter word might seem overly humble at times and might even be hard to say when you’re feeling you’re right, but that same simple word packs a lot of punch. It smoothes over hard feelings, heals hurts and makes things okay again. It’s a word […]

As if MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit 2012 didn’t offer enough quality information and learning resources to tempt you to Las Vegas from February 10th to 12th, consider this: You’ll be able to get one-on-one coaching too. That’s right. In addition to the sessions and speakers–plus networking with your email marketing peers—you’ll be able to delve deep into your organization’s own individual email marketing challenges by sitting down with an expert to discuss one of 12 different topics: […]

MarketingSherpa, has re-posted a blog from February 2011 about our ESPinator email selection tool. Back then, MarketingSherpa called out our newly launched ESPinator tool as an unusual and compelling example of content marketing: that is, content of value one can provide to prospects and customers as a form of marketing. Usually marketers think of videos, ebooks, blogs, articles, whitepapers and the like when planning a content marketing strategy. But online tools like the ESPinator are also […]

Here at ClickMail, we might be gearing up for a busy year as an email marketing agency, but we take the time to enjoy Christmas cookies! Baking and eating the seasonal delights got us thinking—as usual—about a mouth-watering analogy, how we can learn from Christmas cookies and baking and apply those lessons in 2012. The symptom: Missing ingredients If you’ve ever been halfway through baking cookies and realized you would need to run to the store—again—you […]