Why Does All of This Matter?
22 June 2012
Sometimes, you just want to beat your head against your desk, put your head in your hands and cry, and then beat your head against the wall. I’m kind of at that point at the moment. Why? “Probably,” as Jack Handy once said about the reason why raindrops would be God’s tears, “because of something
Guest Blog: I am not a spammer – so why have I been blocked?
12 April 2012
screenshot of an email inbox filled with spam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today’s post comes from Richard Bewley. He’s a deliverability expert in ExactTarget’s London office. Since I’m at ET as well, we sometimes get the opportunity to work together and I’ve found him to be pretty solid in the advice that he gives clients and thought that you might enjoy his insight.
So, without further ado, take it away, Richard!
Dela’s Challenge
29 February 2012
In comments on an article in the Magill Report, I had this to say about things I keep hearing from Dela Quist: I’m sure that Dela has a smashing marketing program, but I keep hearing him say the things you’ve got in this article and that they’ll work “if you’re not doing anything stupid.” And he might even
The difference between triage and planning
27 September 2011
I read an interesting post by Andrew Kordek at Trendline Interactive this morning. Its premise is that “Organizations need to do a better job at defining an inactive.” And the fact is, he’s right. I also think that this ties into recent discussions regarding whether “best practices” are actually the best things for folks to
Why an opt-out opt-in doesn’t really work
17 August 2011
I recently heard from some friends about Penton Media sending an email asking people to subscribe to third-party email. They didn’t like being required to opt-out to avoid getting an email that wasn’t requested in the first place, even if there had been a warning given that the email was coming. Spamhaus agreed with those
Partial bulking & other warning shots
23 March 2011
This morning, I got a question about some, but not all, of a mailing going into the bulk folder at a large ISP. “What does it mean when they do that? What should we do?” Most think sending mail to the bulk folder is an “all or nothing” proposition. They know there is a problem
Number 11 is a nice place to be
15 March 2011
Sometimes we can get too close to something. So close, in fact, that we take comments the wrong way so that they become insults that they were never intended to be. A couple of years ago, a member of the postmaster staff at a large, North American ISP said to a group of ESP people:
An average email user responds
17 November 2010
As I mentioned in my last post, I asked my dad to have a look at Gretchen Scheiman’s MediaPost Email Insider post. Gretchen Scheiman, Does Permission Need To Be Explicit?, MediaPost Email Insider (2010), https://web.archive.org/web/20210227121402/http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/139590/ (last visited May 31, 2024). My dad is a baby boomer and, I think, is a relatively normal email user.
Bigger Is Not Always Better
9 November 2010
Delivery professionals have told clients for years that a bigger list is not always better. We have been telling people that mailing people for the sake of mailing people is not a winning strategy. We have advocated mailing to engaged subscribers while letting the deadwood disappear. For years, we have suffered (not so) silently as